Process Aborted
by JesusFreakft
Summary: Laura Brand and Otto Malpense's training at H.I.V.E. has prepared them for almost any situation that they could possibly face, but when Laura finds out that she's pregnant, will they know what to do? Rated T for mature themes, sexual to a bare minimum. Abortion themes.
1. What to Do?

Process Aborted

Laura Brand sat on the soft bed covered in a dark green quilt with her legs dangling over the side, staring blankly at the complementary green wall. Ever since that decisive day that seemed like decades ago but, in reality, was only several years in the past, when she had been brought to H.I.V.E. for training, she had learned not to be surprised at anything. When those you thought were certain allies suddenly turned on you, you didn't panic. When armed gunmen suddenly burst into your safe house, you weren't shocked. When something seemed like one thing but ended up being something entirely different, you didn't lose courage, even for a moment.

No, ever since her graduation from H.I.V.E. last year with the other Alpha stream students, she had learned a few things about being a villain. She had built on her computer skills, and had even learned a few things from her friends Shelby and Wing about stealth and physically defending herself, should the need arise.

But this. This problem seemed to have no solution.

An rogue cyborg crashing into the room with lasers blazing would hardly faze her. But this problem had her confused beyond rational thought.

Oh, how she regretted what had happened that night two months ago.

She heard the door fly open and Otto rushed in, out of breath, "Laura! I came as soon as I got your message! Is something wrong?"

Laura turned her head slowly to look at him. He was twenty-years-old, now. Practically a man, she thought. She closed her eyes, not wanting to see him or anything else.

"Laura!" Otto's eyes were wide as he took in her mental state, "What—"

"Otto," Laura interrupted hoarsely, opening her eyes again, "There's something I have to tell you."

"Are," Otto's voice caught in his throat, "Are you...dying?"

She shook her head, "No, no. I'm not dying. Otto," she gazed into his eyes, "I...I'm...pregnant."

Otto lost his balance for a moment, stunned by the news, before regaining it, "You...you saw a doctor?"

She nodded, "The G.L.O.V.E. operative down the street," she said softly, close to tears, "He confirmed it."

Otto lowered his shocked eyes to her stomach, staring into space as if she and the room weren't there.

"Oh, Otto!" she her voice broke as a tear managed to find its way out to her face and began to roll down her cheek, "What will I do??"

"Well, what did the doctor say?" Otto asked. He blinked as his eyes refocused and looked back up to her face, "Surely you have options."

"He...he said the safest thing to do would be to...to...terminate the pregnancy," Laura sniffed.

"I think he's right," Otto said gently, walking over and resting a hand on her shoulder.

"How?"

"Well, there's the security aspect," Otto said, "A baby is hard to look after and could slow you down in a situation where time is crucial."

Laura looked unconvinced.

Otto sighed and looked at the floor, "And then there's the aspect of us being so young. I mean, how could we care for this baby?" he looked into her eyes, "We're inexperienced; we couldn't handle it. And, besides that, we don't have the _time_ to put in to care for it. We have places to go, people to see, things to do."

Laura nodded tearfully and set her jaw, "You're right, Otto. It's in our best interest."

Otto gave a small smile, his eyes compassionate, and hugged her.


	2. Time to Operate

Several days later, Laura found herself once again in the G.L.O.V.E. operative's office down the street. The medication and surgical operations that he dealt with were generally far from legal here in Scotland, but he also performed standard operations and dealt with legal prescription medications for cover. This was also helpful whenever another G.L.O.V.E. operative happened to be nearby and needed something medical done.

She shuffled uncomfortably in her seat in the waiting room. The seat was padded, but it felt hard under her.

The doctor's assistant walked out from the operating rooms in the back, looking at his clipboard, and stopped on the cream-colored, thinly carpeted floor. He called a name and a middle-aged woman rose from her seat and followed him past the light-colored walls back out of sight, leaving no one else in the room except Laura.

Laura sighed quietly, resting her elbow on the side of the chair and putting her forehead on it. Otto wasn't here— they'd both agreed that it was too much of a risk for the two of them to be seen together. You never knew who or where your enemies were.

But Laura wasn't sure she could do this without Otto here to support her.

_Is this really the right thing to do?_ she asked herself. She had asked herself this same question almost unceasingly for the past few days, and she was hardly any closer to the answer than she had been that day when she had told Otto the news.

Otto had reasoned it all out with her, and she supposed she agreed with him. Even if you discounted the fact that it would be nearly impossible to be a villain with a baby to care for, they _were_ far too young. Barely out of school, inexperienced, impulsive. They had a great future ahead of them, Otto assured her, and she knew it was true. They couldn't go throwing it away because of one mistake they'd made two months ago. It wasn't right.

When you thought about it, what choice did they really have?

After a little while the woman who had been called back walked out of the hallway and through the waiting room where Laura sat before opening the front door and leaving. A few moments later the doctor's assistant appeared again and looked at his clipboard.

"Lana Brody?" he called Laura's alias before looking up and seeing that she was the only one in the room, "Please follow me," he said as she stood and walked toward him. He looked at his clipboard as they started to walk back among the various rooms where patients were seen by the doctor, "And you are here for...a terminated pregnancy?"

"Yes," Laura said in an abnormally high-pitched voice.

He looked up at her face and noted her tensity, "Don't worry, ma'am, we know what we're doing. You'll be out of here in perfect health in no time."

Laura just nodded numbly and looked at the white doors set in white walls. It smelled of antiseptic.

The assistant stopped in front of a white door that was set a little farther down the hall from the other doors, as if the room inside it was bigger.

"Right through here," the assistant said kindly, opening the door for her, "The doctor will be with you shortly," he walked briskly off, looking at his clipboard as the door slowly closed and shut with an ominous click.

Laura forced herself not to think about what she was about to do and instead examined the various medical equipment around her. Usually, switching mentally to the science and computer world calmed her. But not today.

"Miss Lana Brody!" the doctor swung through the doorway loudly and cheerfully, startling her. He was a short man with graying hair and a bald spot. He pretended not to notice her edginess, "How are you feeling, Miss Brody, Lana, can I call you Lana?" he continued without waiting for an answer, "Had any abnormal symptoms of any sort? Oh, and have you been on any medication recently?"

"Uh..no," Laura said, relaxing at the doctor's easy-going demeanor, "I mean, I've had a few pains in my stomach, but other than that.."

"To be expected, perfectly normal," the doctor said, jotting a note on his clipboard anyway, "Medication?"

"No, no medication," Laura relaxed and felt instant relief as she let the burden that she had been carrying be taken by the doctor, trusting him and his knowledge and letting him do what he did best.


	3. Murderer, Murderer

Several hours later, Laura Brand walked out of the high brick building, weighing less than she had when she had gone in, and walked up the street toward the safe house where she was staying. The weight on her mind, however, had returned. The doctor had warned her about the emotions that she would feel, but she hadn't expected to feel them this heavily!

She walked up to her floor of the safe house in a daze and walked straight to her room without any of the security precautions she usually took.

Two graduates from the Henchmen stream at H.I.V.E. watched her go in and lock the door behind her and raised an eyebrow at each other. But they shrugged and continued their work. This wasn't their business. If Ms. Brand wanted something, she would ask them for it.

In her room, Laura sat on her bed thinking, in the same position as she had been just days earlier as Otto had found her and talked her into this. She sighed. She couldn't blame Otto for this, though, she had agreed with him that this was the only sensible option. And it still _was_ the best option, she reminded herself, the doctor had warned her that she would feel this way, but the way he had said it made it sound like the disappointment you felt after finding out that your holiday trip had been canceled due to bad weather, not these powerfully strong feelings that invaded her mind and body, making it impossible to think of anything else. She felt as if someone that she loved dearly had just died. But it was much worse than that; it was if she, herself, had killed that person!

Laura stifled a sob and slid off the bed to her feet. She walked over to the window and looked out at the urban landscape before her. As she gazed at the buildings that surrounded the streets packed with cars and pedestrians and people riding bikes, though, her mind was somewhere else.

About seven in the evening she decided to try to sleep. She wasn't particularly tired, but she couldn't stand another minute just standing here in her all-too-familiar bedroom, feeling so depressed. She slipped heavily under the covers without bothering to change clothes, but as much as she tried, she couldn't sleep.

_It wasn't real! The baby wasn't alive yet! _she told herself desperately,_ The doctor said so himself! And he would know!_

She thought about taking one of the sleeping pills that she knew was in one of the drawers of the dresser, but her H.I.V.E. instinct was hesitant to go into a chemically induced sleep. If something should happen, that part of her brain reasoned, if someone tried to kill you tonight or blow up the building or take you hostage, how would you escape if you were unconscious?

So, for the next few hours, she tossed and turned in her bed, the soft feather-mattress helping her none as her restless mind churned out thoughts faster than her computer could dish out data.

_What did it look like? _part of her wondered,_ Nothing, _another part of her responded,_ It was just a large partion of biological mass! It wasn't alive!_

_Was it a boy or a girl? It wasn't either one, it wasn't nearly developed enough to be anything but big blob of blubber!_

On and on and on her mind went, never ceasing with the thoughts that only made her depressed feelings get worse.

Finally, at eleven, she sat up in anguish. If only there was a way to prove to herself that the baby...that the _thing_ in her stomach had not been alive! Suddenly she remembered the ultrasound that the doctor and his assistant had looked at before they had done the procedure. She had asked to look at it, but the doctor had told her that there was really nothing to see. They were just looking at it because they were supposed to before operating.

Since when had they done things by what the law dictated? she wondered suddenly. They had said that they were only doing it because they were required to before the procedure, but Laura was quite sure that they had absolutely no respect for the law whatsoever and would gladly skip any requirement they could without risk to being caught. Were they hiding something from her? Laura was surprised by this last thought. Why would they want to hide anything from her? Was there something in the ultrasound that they didn't want her to see? Well, she would soon find out.

She grimly sat up and turned. Her bare feet found the soft carpet and she stood, walking over to her computer which sat on the desk beside one of the windows. She brushed some of her bright red hair behind her ear as the computer powered up, then went to the website of the G.L.O.V.E. operative's office. It had all the appearances of your average medical clinic, but Laura's fingers flew other the keys without her thinking and soon she was inside the website's database, scanning quickly over the files that were meant only for the employees of the office. She saw the video file "Lana Brody – Ultrasound" and hesitated with the cursor over the icon. But then she set her jaw and clicked it. The video opened up and began to play. But as the video played, she felt increasingly worse, not better. At first it only looked like a mass of nothing, just like the doctor had said. But, as she watched, Laura could make out the tiny limbs flailing about, the tiny head, and there was even a rhythm, almost impossible to hear, that Laura finally identified as the child's tiny heart.

She reeled back, unbelieving. It, the child, was alive?!? Why had the operative lied to her?? But these questions were shoved aside by one question that became the prominent one in her mind: What have I done??

She stumbled back to her bed and tried to sleep, but a voice in her head kept whispering repeatedly, _Murderer, murderer, murderer, murderer, murderer, murderer,_ the whispered words were like iron punches from Wing, one right after another right after another. She finally uttered a stifled cry and jumped out of the bed. She hurried to the dresser in the corner and fished around in the top drawer until she found the sleeping pills. A small part of her brain still tried to convince her that not to take them, but it was only background noise against the desperation dominating her mind. Only one pill was necessary. Laura took two and quickly swallowed them.

She climbed into the bed again and pulled the covers over her.

_Murderer, murderer, murderer, murderer._

She grabbed the pillow and crushed her head in its soft depths. She couldn't blame herself, she tried to convince her brain, she hadn't known what she was doing! The doctor had lied to her! She had been tricked!

_Murderer, murderer, murderer, murderer, murderer, murderer._

It had been a mistake from the start, one night alone with Otto, that was it, and this had happened! Otto had told her that this was the best thing to do! Otto had convinced her! No, she stopped herself again, she would not blame Otto for this. It was not Otto's fault.

_Murderer, murderer, murderer, murderer, murderer, murderer, murderer, murderer._

How long did it take these freakin' pills to work?!? She flew out of bed and practically dove for the dresser, insanely desperate for relief. She dumped out four more pills and threw them into her mouth and down her parched throat. She stood there for a moment, dizzy, and put a hand on the dresser to steady herself. The pills were finally working. She turned and fell into her bed, not having even enough strength to pull the covers up over herself, moments before she slipped into the blissful oblivion of unconsciousness.


	4. A Friend Lost

Otto climbed the metal stairs, his footsteps clanging loudly throughout the shaft with each footstep. He reached the floor he wanted and paused outside the door while he knew that the the guards inside were even now identifying him. As he waited he glanced out the window from the landing at the morning light outside. A moment later the door clicked open and he turned the handle, opened it, and stepped inside, subconsciously wiping the doorknob of his fingerprints before he let go and let it slip shut smoothly behind him.

"Is Laura in?" he asked one of the guards after a glance that showed him Laura wasn't in the main room.

"Yes, sir," the guard responded, looking up from his computer, "She hasn't left her room since yesterday afternoon when she returned from her operation."

"Really?" Otto was instantly anxious, was Laura okay? He quickened his step to Laura's room and knocked, "Laura? It's me, Otto," he said with unnatural loudness to penetrate the door's thick wood. After a few moments of silence he tried again, "Laura? Are you there?"

He tried the door and found it to be locked.

"Laura! If you're in there, open up! Or at least say something!" Otto tried one more time.

Still hearing nothing, he stepped back and grimly lashed out with his foot, splintering the wood. He reached in through the small hole he had made and unlocked the door from the other side. He opened it and hurried in, and then he saw Laura lying on her bed, almost unnaturally still.

"Laura!" he gasped, rushing forward. One feel to her neck proved his worst fears true as he felt nothing. No steady heartbeat, not even a faint, uneven one. Not even Wing or Shelby could slow their heart enough to have no pulse at all.

He ran out of her room into the main room before he could collect his thoughts. He needed to contact Dr. Nero. He was just about to ask one of the guards for the use of his computer when he remembered Laura's laptop. It would be a lot more secured than the guard's. He hurried back into her room, feeling sick at the sight of Laura's still body, and took her laptop off of the desk. As he touched it it came to life and he realized that it had never been turned off, the screen had only been blank to save battery power. He looked at the screen, but there was nothing there. Although he wasn't near as good with computers as Laura, or even Shelby, he could operate one fairly efficiently and a few minutes later had Dr. Nero on the screen. After a few quick greetings, he told Dr. Nero about the recent events and what he had found this morning.

"I don't know what to do," he said in exasperation after he had finished telling the story, "I'm not even sure what happened. The fact that this happened right after she had a terminated pregnancy, I mean, it's unlikely that this was just a coincidence!"

Dr. Nero nodded gravely, "You may be right, Otto," he said, "I'll send some trusted people to investigate the cause of this. They'll be there in a few hours."

Otto nodded, "Alright," he said, "In the meantime, I'm going to get some answers of my own."

"Don't do anything rash, Otto," Dr. Nero warned, "I know this is a terrible loss for you, I feel sadness at the loss of her, as well. You must control your emotions, though."

Otto was momentarily surprised that Dr. Nero felt feelings of any sort toward a former student, as he normally kept any personal emotions unseen to everyone, but he nodded, "I will, Dr. Nero."


	5. Answers

Otto walked down the street toward the medical clinic where Laura had been just yesterday. An incredibly strong emotion rose in his throat, but he squelched it; he didn't need emotion right now. He needed to think rationally.

He opened the door and stepped inside. A glance told him that there was no one there except for the receptionist working on a computer at the front desk. As he walked forward the receptionist, a young man with short, reddish hair and slight frame, glanced up and saw him.

"Hello, sir, how can I help you?" he asked in a tone of voice that could possibly be taken as friendly when accompanied with the forced smile that was on his face.

"Yes," Otto replied politely, "I'm here about a patient you saw yesterday, a Lana Brody?" he waited while the receptionist tapped a few keys and brought up the file on the computer.

"Yes?" the receptionist asked, "What about her?"

"I'd like to see the file on her procedure," Otto said, placing his hands on the desk and leaning on them casually.

"I'm sorry, sir," the receptionist said, not sounding sorry at all, "But we can't—"

"I believe you can," Otto interrupted smoothly. He paused, forcing himself to be patient. He glanced again around the room to make sure no one else had entered, then he leaned in closer to the receptionist and said in a lower voice, "Otto Malpense, G.L.O.V.E. operative."

The young man behind the desk paled a shade, eyes opening slightly wider. He turned quickly to his computer and typed furiously for a minute, then looked back at Otto, then back at the screen, then at Otto, then the screen again, as if comparing the two.

He swallowed hard as he turned paler by two more shades and turned back to Otto, "Yes, sir," he said in a small voice that suggested he was very happy to be alive after his impertinence, and that he hoped it would last, "By all means, come around and see," he motioned and Otto moved around the desk so he could see the computer.

"What would you like to know, sir?" the young man was saying in the same nervous voice.

"I think it'd be faster if I looked myself," Otto gestured at the chair and the receptionist looked all too happy to give it up.

Otto sat and looked at the file on the screen. Lana Brody, terminated pregnancy, operation a complete success. Then why had Laura been so upset? He suddenly remembered her computer, how it had been turned on when he had found it. Had she seen something? Otto put his hands on the keyboard and started to type. Windows flashed on and off screen, but the flow was soon stopped quite suddenly by a single error window that was itself nothing but a sequence of seemingly random numbers.

Otto sat back in his chair, hands on his lap. Of course, if Laura had accessed the system her entrance would be untraceable.

He turned to the receptionist, "Did anyone access the system in the last twenty-four hours?"

"I...I don't know, sir," the receptionist looked around, not making eye contact.

Otto stood slowly and pulled the shaking young man closer by the top of his shirt, "Was. The. System. Accessed," he said the words slowly, menacingly.

"I don't know, sir!" the young man cried, "If I did I would tell you, but I don't! I don't know!"

Otto thought a moment, believed him, and pushed him back.

"Who's in charge here?" he asked in a controlled voice.

"Mr. Smithens is in the back. He's the main doctor."

Otto nodded, "Get him," he said, and with those two small words the young receptionist was flying backwards, through the door, and into the back.

A few minutes later, a short man with graying hair in a white coat appeared, eyes alert from the presence of a G.L.O.V.E. operative much higher in power than himself, but he was more controlled than the receptionist had been.

"Yes, Mr. Malpense...sir," he changed to the more general title as Otto's eyes narrowed slightly at the use of his real name, "What can I do for you today?"

"Were your systems accessed in the last twenty-four hours?" Otto repeated his question.

"By someone outside the building?"

"Yes, by an outside source," Otto clarified.

The doctor hesitated, "Yes, someone did access our systems late last night," he said finally.

"From where?"

"Well...we don't know," the doctor was clearly unhappy about the lack of knowledge they'd been able to pull together about the breach in security.

Otto nodded again. He had expected as much. So it had been Laura.

"What did they access?" he asked.

"May I?" the doctor motioned to the computer and Otto moved aside to let him through. He sat down and typed for a few moments, going into a secured area that Otto had been too distracted to notice, typing in a password that Otto subconsciously noted for further reference, and opening a file that appeared in a video player.

"The hacker viewed the ultrasound taken from Miss Lana Brody," the doctor swiveled the chair to look at Otto.

"Why?"

The doctor was suddenly uncomfortable, "We...don't know that either," he said.

"May I watch it?" Otto said it as a question, but they both knew it was more of a command.

The doctor clicked the mouse and the video began to play. Otto watched, but he couldn't make much of anything out.

"What are we seeing?" he finally asked.

The doctor glanced again at Otto, obviously wondering why a man in such a more powerful position than him should need help understanding something which was so simple for him. But he didn't say anything, just pointed out the sides of the woman's— Laura's— stomach, the blob of flesh that was the fetus. As he watched, a part of the fetus stretched out away from the main portion like an amoeba stretching out a part of itself, a tentacle.

"What's that?" he asked, pointing at the outcropping.

"What?" the doctor didn't seem to see what Otto was referring to.

"That. It looks like...almost like a...limb. Like an arm or something," Otto blinked.

"That...that's impossible," the doctor said, shifting in his chair.

"It sure looks like that," Otto said, peering at the image more closely, "Are you sure?"

"Y-yes, quite sure," the doctor assured him, but when Otto looked back at him he looked more nervous than sure.

Otto decided to go out on the proverbial limb and see if he was telling the truth.

"That's what it is, isn't it, doctor?" he said in a calculatedly quiet voice.

"N-no, it's not—"

"It's a limb. An arm, or perhaps a leg. On a fetus that _you_ said was not nearly that far into development," Otto persisted.

The doctor's mouth moved but no sound came out. He turned slowly to look at Otto, and Otto knew then that he had been lying all along.

"That fetus, that blob of nothingness, as I believe you referred to it," Otto pointed at the thing on the screen, "But that thing, that _baby_, is alive. Isn't it?"

The doctor just sat there dumbly, fear in his eyes.

"Isn't it?" Otto pressed in a still-quiet voice.

The doctor's form seemed to deflate, all of his confidence gone, "Yes," he whispered.

Otto had all but known that he was lying, but hearing him outright admit it brought all of his previously-put-down emotions flooding back to him in impossibly powerful waves. He leaned in closer to the doctor, who was getting even more nervous by the second.

"Do you know who Lana Brody really is?" he asked in a barely controlled voice.

The doctor nodded shakily.

"And did you know that she was disturbed by the lies that you told her?" he spit out the word "lies" like it was a distasteful bit of food in his mouth that he wished to rid himself of, "And did you know that she was the one who hacked into your system last night?"

The doctor actually looked slightly relieved that Otto had effectively told him that the security breach of last night was not a problem.

"And did you know that, because of what _you_ told her about her _baby_, last night she killed herself," Otto put the emphasis on the last two words. He was practically shaking with rage at this man, whose fault it was that Laura was not living and breathing with the child inside of her this moment.

The doctor didn't look very relieved anymore.

"I didn't...I...she...she said..." he stumbled over himself trying to make excuses.

"You. Killed. A. G.L.O.V.E. Operative," Otto stared into the doctor's eyes with so much intensity as he spoke that the doctor was shaking too, but this time it was out of fear. His voice had dropped to a whisper, "And G.L.O.V.E. does not forget or forgive easily the _murder_ of an effective operative."

The doctor was shaking even more violently, terror in his eyes, not even trying to hide his fear anymore.

Otto leaned forward and picked the man up by the collar, the same way he had the receptionist. He was surprisingly light for a man carrying to much weight around. With a grunt Otto threw him backward into the wall, with crumpled slightly under the force. The doctor slid slowly down to the ground, moaning in pain and wondering what Otto was going to do to him.

Otto turned away in disgust, "I'm not going to hurt you further," he turned back, "I'll leave that to G.L.O.V.E.."

He turned back toward the door and covered the distance in several measured strides. He opened the door and went out onto the street, letting it shut with a slam. Otto walked up the street toward the safe house. As he did, he saw a dark van with tinted windows parked outside. Several people in dark suits, carrying cases were getting out and walking toward the front doors. Otto was temporarily hit with a burst of adrenaline as his mind ran through a mental list of people who might know about the safe house. But then one of the men saw him and nodded in greeting, and Otto recognized him as Nigel Darkdoom, an acquaintance from H.I.V.E.. Dr. Nero's agents had arrived.


	6. Friends

Two months later, Otto was sitting in front of a mahogany desk with a laptop computer surrounded by papers, a telephone, and two short, metal boxes labeled "In" and "Out", all which contested for his attention. But he was giving it to none of them; instead, he was staring out the window at the urban skyline splayed out before him as far as the eye could see.

He was thinking about Laura. He missed her. She had been a good friend, and they had had many fun, exciting, and terrifying times together. He had loved her, and she had loved him; not just in a romantic way, but as friends. And he couldn't help feeling that what had happened to her was partly his fault. Dr. Nero had assured him that it was not the case, that it was just a mistake, that it could've happened to anyone, that this was a standard emotion after losing someone that you cared about. He knew all this but the feelings were still there, nevertheless.

Otto thought about the events of the last two months. After his encounter with the doctor Otto had gone back into the safe house with Nigel, who had expressed his deepest sympathies, and the various types of agents, forensics, pathology, etc. had investigated the "crime scene" thoroughly and by the book. But the results were already known by Otto and he didn't pay that much attention to what they had done. Aside from these few agents, Dr. Nero had withheld the truth of Laura's death, at Otto's request. Most people (who actually knew about her death at all) thought that it was an unprovoked attack by a certain terrorist organisation that Dr. Nero had neglected to name to Otto. Otto didn't particularly care, either.

The phone on the desk rang, rudely jolting him from his thoughts. He took a moment to take a deep breath so that none of his sad thoughts would be apparent in his voice when he spoke. Then he picked up the phone and answered with "Hello?" using a Russian accent that went with the supposed purpose of the building in which his operation was headquartered.

"Hey, Otto."

"Hey, Wing," Otto dropped the accent at the voice of his old friend on the phone, "What's up?"

"Not a whole lot," Wing said, "I'm sorry about Laura."

"Yeah, thanks," Otto said. He paused long enough to swallow in order to keep his voice from breaking, "I'm sure it was devastating for you."

"More so for Shelby," Wing replied, "She and Laura were close. Of course, I felt horrible about the whole thing, too."

Otto nodded, even though Wing couldn't see him, "She was a good girl," he said softly.

"She was," Wing agreed, "Nasty business with those terrorists, killing her unprovoked and all."

"Yes," Otto changed the subject, "But how are you and Shelby doing in your operation? I haven't talked to you guys in ages, it seems."

"The operation is fine," Wing seemed to hesitate, "But there is one thing."

"Oh?" Otto raised an eyebrow slightly, "Is something wrong?"

"Yeah, well, sort of," Wing seemed uncomfortable, "Um...Otto, you've been my friend for a long time, and I know that if anyone can help, you can. The thing is, Otto," he continued, "Shelby is...she's...pregnant."

Otto blinked in surprise as a sinking feeling came over him again, "What?" was all he could manage.

"Well, a few weeks ago a major, risky step in the operation went through with flying colors," Wing explained, "We had something of a party for all of the scientists and people working on it. And Shelby and I...kind of got carried away," Otto just sat there, trying to collect his thoughts, so Wing went on, talking faster now, "I mean, I know it was a mistake, but it seemed harmless enough at the time. But what's done is done, right? I mean, we can regret our decision but then we have to move on and deal with the problem. Shelby thinks an abortion is the right thing for us, but I'm not so sure. She says that we can't have a baby to care for; we don't know the first thing about it and we've got this big operation besides that! The doctors all assure us that it's nowhere near developed enough to feel pain or even be recognizable as a baby. But I'm still not sure, I just—"

"Wing, stop," Otto interrupted his friend. He wiped away a stray tear and took a deep breath, "Wing," he said slowly, "There's something I have to tell you."


End file.
